Top positive review

This is not designed for infestations or ant hills. It is a product designed to prevent entry of insects into your residence and eliminate individual insects that have entered. While this may help the odd case of colonized insects, it really is made for those solo runners that snuck in when you weren't looking.

If you have an infestation or a mess, your insects are doing more than entering your house, they are living in it. Perhaps if it was sprayed around the house like the floors were being watering your floors it would work on infestations...but, PLEASE DON'T DO THAT, it wasn't designed for that use nor was that dosage tested for human/animal exposure. Consider calling an exterminator for infestations (100s+, colonies, groups of insects, etc.). And as for ant hills, either remove them, or buy poison for ant mounds. Are there ant hills in your home? That seems like a different problem.

After you've taken care of cleaning things up, then protect your residence from the entry of new insects. You'll see this product is WONDERFUL FOR THE JOB. I've used it for years, one home in a very wooded, shaded area, one home in the south. Works like a charm...spraying as others have mentioned...seasonally.

This product works by leaving a residue, so if what you spray it on (baseboard, perimeter of home covered in leaves in the fall, edge of home outside, etc.) is cleaned, blown away, excessively rained on...some or all of that residue will be removed...particularly overtime. Be aware of your specific situation and adjust your application frequency accordingly.

IF YOU CREATE A BARRIER, THEY WILL NOT ENTER. (Read the label for all the insects covered...it's extensive.)

1. Clean up your outside and inside space a little of non-permanent items, pulling things from the perimeter (toys, anything that shouldn't be on the floor or ground basically). Eliminate debris and items in which insects hide, make webs, etc.2. Spray the OUTSIDE perimeter and along the border of every door and window.3. Spray the INSIDE perimeter, along the base boards, of your whole house (closets, pantries, bathrooms included). Then spray a barrier between rooms (around the door frame).

Lastly, I understand the frustration that might occur if your wand or applicator never came. Exchange it with Amazon, try a spray bottle, etc.

I've been using this with pets. Label says that IT MUST DRY BEFORE IT IS OK WITH PETS. Please remove them from the area while you apply. If you have a pet roach or tarantula I don't know what to tell you.

Top critical review

I basically dumped this all over my patio because we had tons of ants and the next morning there were still ants. And they’re like the tiny little slow ants, not big daddy ants, I thought By the amount I poured everywhere that this would kill ants for months to come (as it GUARANTEES IT WILL) but it couldn’t even keep them away for one night. Not impressed.

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This is not designed for infestations or ant hills. It is a product designed to prevent entry of insects into your residence and eliminate individual insects that have entered. While this may help the odd case of colonized insects, it really is made for those solo runners that snuck in when you weren't looking.

If you have an infestation or a mess, your insects are doing more than entering your house, they are living in it. Perhaps if it was sprayed around the house like the floors were being watering your floors it would work on infestations...but, PLEASE DON'T DO THAT, it wasn't designed for that use nor was that dosage tested for human/animal exposure. Consider calling an exterminator for infestations (100s+, colonies, groups of insects, etc.). And as for ant hills, either remove them, or buy poison for ant mounds. Are there ant hills in your home? That seems like a different problem.

After you've taken care of cleaning things up, then protect your residence from the entry of new insects. You'll see this product is WONDERFUL FOR THE JOB. I've used it for years, one home in a very wooded, shaded area, one home in the south. Works like a charm...spraying as others have mentioned...seasonally.

This product works by leaving a residue, so if what you spray it on (baseboard, perimeter of home covered in leaves in the fall, edge of home outside, etc.) is cleaned, blown away, excessively rained on...some or all of that residue will be removed...particularly overtime. Be aware of your specific situation and adjust your application frequency accordingly.

IF YOU CREATE A BARRIER, THEY WILL NOT ENTER. (Read the label for all the insects covered...it's extensive.)

1. Clean up your outside and inside space a little of non-permanent items, pulling things from the perimeter (toys, anything that shouldn't be on the floor or ground basically). Eliminate debris and items in which insects hide, make webs, etc.2. Spray the OUTSIDE perimeter and along the border of every door and window.3. Spray the INSIDE perimeter, along the base boards, of your whole house (closets, pantries, bathrooms included). Then spray a barrier between rooms (around the door frame).

Lastly, I understand the frustration that might occur if your wand or applicator never came. Exchange it with Amazon, try a spray bottle, etc.

I've been using this with pets. Label says that IT MUST DRY BEFORE IT IS OK WITH PETS. Please remove them from the area while you apply. If you have a pet roach or tarantula I don't know what to tell you.

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Florida residents. We started getting these little winged ants 🐜 in our house, which never happened before. They were crawling all over the ceiling in our 2-story house, so it was impossible to reach them & kill them.The pest control guy charges almost $120 to spray pesticides, and being the cheapster money saving types, we wanted to see if this spray system works.IT WORKS!The same day we got it delivered, I sprayed the entire perimeter of the house outside, plus inside the house corners and closets, plus the garage.Well, it's been a few months, and I haven't seen one bug since.I even still have half a gallon left.Get it. This works.

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So, I've owned this for approx. 12 months ... and it works! However, the way you use it depends on how well it works. I spray this along the baseboards of my home in each room. We live in a wooded area and sometimes German cockroaches are found inside during the summer. When this is sprayed as a barrier, I find a few roaches laid up on their backs dead. However, if I find one alive and spray it on contact you have to drench it before it dies. So, for on-contact, it doesn't work because it takes a while for the poison to kill the bugs. I'd give it 5 stars if it killed on contact.

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I had a cockroach infestation in my front yard. Sooo many roaches. I could actually hear them moving around in the grass. I tried diatomaceous earth which has always worked well for me in the past but this time they just laughed at it. After using the Home Defense, the carnage the next morning was a sight to behold. The only reason this is getting 4 stars instead of 5 is the "comfort wand" crapped out about halfway through the bottle. I used the whole bottle in one night (yes, it was that bad) and ended up pouring the last 1/3 of the bottle on a tree stump where the little freaks apparently had developed nests.

I've seen some roaches back in the front yard but not that many. I'm buying a second bottle to get rid of those and the ones in the back yard who are laughing at the second 10-pound bag of diatomaceous earth.

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Works better than paying for an exterminator! Normally, I spray inside and outside my home twice a year but last year I ended up only spraying with this once a year. Guess what? No bugs. Whatsoever! I love the spray nozzle on this--it sprays a continuous stream and I have no hand fatigue after spraying for a long time. This stuff is simply the best!

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I love this stuff - I grew up with mom spraying the house with Ortho Home Defense every season. We never had problems with ants/spiders/etc. I’m in college now, and I rent a room off campus away from home. When I first moved in, holy moly there were spiders, crickets, roaches, just insect life galore... I live over 10 miles away from the stores, and with no vehicle, I couldn’t run out and buy it but Amazon Prime always saves the day! My Ortho Home Defense arrived quickly and with the necessary wand (some reviews mentioned damaged containers or missing wands - that didn’t happen for me!). I sprayed inside and outside of my room, creating a barrier like the instructions state to do. About 48 hours later, most bugs had died/left the area. I haven’t had any problems with infestation since! I’ll definitely be buying another one for next season!

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I have been purchasing this product for about 10 years now ever since I was temporarily living in Mississippi. The bugs were horrible out there and this stuff used to stop them dead in their tracks.

Now that I own a home in California, the bugs aren't as bad, but they can still be annoying. This stuff works great and I will continue to use it. I used to pay $400/year ($100/every three months) for a terminator service to come and spray. Now I pay a fraction of that and it works just as well.

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As with virtually all of my Prime orders, this excellent product arrived later than promised. This should not detract from the quality of Home Defense Max. It's about the best available in this form I find it effective for about 3 or 4 weeks here in the South.

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Every fall the critters invade the house. I've been using this for over 10 years now. This order it came with a battery powered sprayer. Which is even better with my arthritic hands. Went all around the house, getting around all windows, doors, cracks in the bricks. Then inside the house. The women in my house don't like them jumping things, crickets make me mad with their noise. No one like to see the leggy millipedes on the walls. Them thing are bold. And my bedroom is in the basement too. I had fun spraying around the porch and they were jumping and running. If I only thought to record it with my phone. And I still got a third of the bottle left over for later. It gets everything but the mosquitoes and the stink bugs. I use peppermint oil for them. It's nice to know there's nothing under my bed. Or on the wall looking at me. And mom ain't gonna wake me up saying "Get it"... Now I wait for my Auntie to call me on the phone. If she sees one critter, nobody sleeps at night.

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Bought to provide some bug protection and barrier for the summer months.

The good- Can be used indoors and outdoors.- Provide up to 12 months of insect protection.- Non-staining and odor-free.- Kills insect on contact and will kill them if they cross the barrier.- It is pet-friendly (once dried).- The comfort spray wand makes it easy to reach hard locations (ceiling and tight spots) and it is reusable.- It uses Bifenthrin as its active ingredient which effectively kills insect pests like ants, cockroaches, centipedes, earwigs, fleas, ticks, millipedes, silverfish, spiders, and other listed insects.

The bad- It has these insecticides: Bifenthrin 0.05%, Zeta-Cypermethrin 0.01%.

Overall, is it worth it? Absolutely.

Your questions, our answers:

Does it kill bed bugs too?

It does not.

The "12 Month Protection" seems misleading. Does the manufacturer mean one application should last 12 months?

It is up to 12 months depending on how well you spray the area and the type of insects. The more accurate depiction is 6 months.

Is this safe around infants and pets?

We recommend removing infants and pets in the treated room for at least several hours and ventilating the room after application. It is "safe" after the spray has dried, but to be on the safe side to give that adequate time.